history of the place and the Auburn of the poem, and the exactness with which the scenery of the one answers to the description of the other, To this is opposed the mention of the nightingale,

"And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made,'

there being no such bird in the island. The objection is slighted, on the other hand, by considering the passage as a mere poetical licence. Besides, say they, 'the Robin is the Irish nightingale."—B.

The Rev. R. H. Newell, however, found an Auburn, so called, in Ireland on his visit, about 1810: vide his Remarks on the Actual Scene of the Deserted Village,' with illustrations by Alken from drawings taken on the spot, 4to. 1811. But this, as he tells us, came by its name since, and in consequence of the fame of Goldsmith's Deserted Village.' This Auburn, too, Mr. Newell adds, is a house, not a village. It is near Athlone, and belonged to Goldsmith's nephew, Daniel Hodson, who, having made a fortune in India, built the house on his return, about 1790, and named it Auburn in honour of the poet.

Very few of those who contend for an English site for Auburn venture upon naming a locality. But Springfield, in Essex, has been so named. Here, it is said, while residing at a farm-house, " opposite the church," Goldsmith wrote the 'Deserted Village;" and hence it is assumed that Springfield is pictured by the poet as Auburn.1 See also for the Springfield theory, Notes and Queries, 5th Series, v. x., pp. 88 and 294, and Lewis's 'Topographical Dictionary,-England,' 1831, Gronin's 'Excursions in Essex,' 1818, and the 'Antiquarian Handbook of England and Wales,' 1849, there quoted.-ED.

THE JOHNSON LINES IN GOLDSMITH'S POEMS.

To test the view taken in our notes at pp. 19 and 45, the view, namely, that the attribution of these lines to Dr. Johnson rests solely upon Boswell's statements (Life of Johnson,' Bohn's edition, v. ii., p. 309), the present writer lately (January, 1883) added to the substance of those notes the following in Notes and Queries:-"It need not be assumed that Boswell has stated anything more than what he believed to be true; still less need it be assumed that Johnson stated anything which was not true; but I think, as the case stands, it may be at least admitted that Boswell may have made some mistake. The ascription of the good things of the time, in both verse and prose, to Dr. Johnson was, as is well known, quite a common occurrence. Miss Reynolds, for instance, states in reference to the Traveller' (Recollections,' published in the 'Johnsoniana' at the end of Bohn's edition of Boswell's 'Life'), that 'Dr. Johnson told her that he had written' the ten lines descriptive of the Englishman commencing 'Stern o'er each bosom.' Nobody, I suppose, believes this; and yet no doubt the lady was, generally speaking, as worthy belief as Boswell, The explanation, of course, is that she

1 Mr. Newell, however, in his work above mentioned, states that at Lissoy it was believed that the Deserted Village' was written while the poet was on a visit there: see ante, p. 35.-ED.

was mistaken. Again, Johnson himself relates that Chamier went away with the belief that he (Johnson) had written the first line of the 'Traveller,' because he in conversation interpreted Goldsmith's meaning as to the word slow seemingly better than Goldsmith did himself (vide Boswell's 'Johnson,' vol. ii., p. 85). I should be glad if any further light could be thrown upon this matter; but so far it seems to me the above-stated facts point to at least a doubt as to whether the nine lines in the Traveller and four lines in the Deserted Village,' usually marked as Johnson's, were really written by him." This elicited no contradiction; and we may therefore conclude that our plea that the question may be looked upon as an open one is virtually allowed.-ED.

PLAYS.

THE

GOOD-NATURED MAN,

A COMEDY.

[This admirable comedy was represented, for the first time, at Covent Garden, January 29, 1768. It kept possession of the stage for nine nights, but was considered by the author's friends not to have met with all the success it deserved. Dr. Johnson spoke of it as the best comedy which had appeared since 'The Provoked Husband,' and Burke estimated its merits still higher.-B. The first edition, published in the usual 8vo. play-book form, bears date 1768, with the imprint-" Printed for W. Griffin, in Catharine-street, Strand." Five editions in this form appeared in the same year.-ED.]

PREFACE.

WHEN I undertook to write a comedy, I confess I was strongly prepossessed in favour of the poets of the last age, and strove to imitate them. The term genteel comedy was then unknown amongst us, and little more was desired by an audience than nature and humour, in whatever walks of life they were most conspicuous. The author of the following scenes never imagined that more would be expected of him, and, therefore, to delineate character has been his principal aim. Those who know anything of composition, are sensible that, in pursuing humour, it will sometimes lead us into the recesses of the mean: I was even tempted to look for it in the master of a spunging-house; but, in deference to the public taste-grown of late, perhaps, too delicate—the scene of the bailiffs was retrenched in the representation. In deference also to the judgment of a few friends, who think in a particular way, the scene is here

1

1 This scene (Act III.) was struck out after the first representation, at the desire of the manager, Mr. Colman.-B. Besides being restored in the printed copy, this scene-one of the most humorous in the play -was afterwards restored to the acting version.-ED.